It’s OK, its not a bad word.  Some wear the title like a badge of honor.  If you’re one of them, come by on Monday night to see if you’ve got what it takes to be THE Philly Beer Geek.  The Philly Beer Geek competition is now in it’s 5th year.  This Monday at 7:00 pm the Barley Legal Homebrewers will be here to MC a 2012 preliminary round.  Two winners will advance to the Philly Beer Geek semi-finals on Wednesday the 23rd at Manyunk Brewpub.  In addition to the chance to advance to the semi-finals we’ll be awarding the winner their choice of a $50 Iron Hill gift card or a 55 pound bag of Weyermann pilsner malt, the first runner up a $50 gift card or bag of malt (whichever the winner doesn’t take!) and the second runner up a 750 ml Iron Hill reserve bottle of their choice.  The grand prize for the final round is pretty sweet, plus you’d get to flaunt the title of Philly Beer Geek ’till you get dethroned in 2013.  See you Monday, and good luck!

Chris

Looks like we did it again!  Justin grabbed us a Bronze for his Grodziski and Bob took golds for both Russian Imperial Stout and Olde Ale.  The combination landed us World Beer Cup Champion Small Brewpub and Brewmaster.  That means that according to the judges, Iron Hill is the best small brewpub in the world and Bob is the best small brewpub brewer in the world! 

I’d also like to congratulate our friends in the Tri-State area;

Troegs won a bronze for Troegenator.

Dock St. took a  bronze for Prisoner of Hell.

Dogfish Head took a silver for Noble Rot. 

And even though they’re not quite local, The Beer Lass is pretty excited about Allagash edging Hoegaarten out for a gold in the Belgian White category.

Here’s a complete list of the winners.  Also, if you click here or on the picture above you’ll get a video of Bob winning yet another gold medal for Russian Imperial Stout.

Cheers,

Chris

It’s that time of year again…  Philly Beer Scene magazine is doing their anual Best of the Philly Beer Scene awards.  This year yours truly is up for Brewmaster of the Year!  Please take a moment to visit the site and cast your votes.  Iron Hill is up for awards in  a few of the categories.  As always, thank you for your support!

This event sells out every year so get your tickets soon.  Media is a bit of a trip from Maple Shade, but this really is a great fest. 

See you there!

Chris

It’s that time of the year again! The annual Brandywine Valley Craft Brewers’ Festival is returning on May 19th in Media. This event has become a favorite among our patrons, and this year should be better than ever!  We’re hosting 25 local breweries showcasing the best craft beer in the region, along with food and live music all day. Tickets are $45 online, $50 at the door, and $5 for Designated Drivers. Proceeds will benefit the Media Youth Center, providing educational and recreational opportunities for youth in the community. Tickets usually sell out online before the event, so make sure to get yours early!

Link for tickets: http://www.etix.com/ticket/online/venueSearch.jsp?venue_id=8632

Most of you know that I was out of the country for 10 days.  Well this beer is what happened while I was gone… 

On the night I won the trip to Belgium, Chris and Ruby (our assistant brewers) were there, along with half of the Barley Legal homebrew club.  So shortly after  my name was announced a few of the BLs cornered Chris and asked “So what are we going to brew when Chris isn’t here?”  They started joking about sneaking into the brewery and making something kind of  off-the-wall while I was far far away.  A little before my trip I told them they could go ahead and come up with their own recipe and brew it while I was gone.  Hopefully my permission didn’t make it any less fun.  I had to be a little bit involved, to tailor their goals to our system and source and order the ingredients for example.  But other than that the recipe and execution is all them.  I have to say its a great beer, although it has WAY more hops than I’d ever put into a brown ale. (not to mention the hurting it put on my budget!)  That’s homebrewers for you though.  Chris Isn’t here goes on tap at 7 pm this Thursday.  You can probably count on a few (or a hundred) of the homebrewers to show up to drink it.  See you there!

Cheers,

Chris

We always open these beer dinners up to our mug club members first and most of the time they sell out before we can even accomodate all of them!  But we’ve still got a few seats open for our beer dinners on March 27th and 28th.  If you haven’t been to one yet, you’ve got to try one.   Click here for the menu.  Both dinners start at 7 pm and are $65 a head including gratuity.  Reservations are required.  Call the restaurant and ask to speak to a manager (our host stand will not be handling this dinner).  856-273-0300

We’ve got a great event going on at “The Hill” this Saturday.  Perfect timing too.  If you’d rather not deal with the throngs of plastic-bead-wearing, drunken amateurs that green beer attracts, and you want to watch some basketball on a big screen without going to a sports bar, this is the perfect storm for you.  In the spirit of the tournament  we’re doing three weekends of elimination style cask conditioned beer throwdowns company-wide.  You’ll be able to participate in the first round here in Maple Shade.  Three Iron Hill locations will have two or three firkins from other locations tapped concurrently at 1 pm.  The first to kick goes on to the Big Dance in Wilmington in April.  In order to cut down on home team advantage my beer won’t be one of the three firkins we’ll feature this Saturday.  So this will give you a chance to see what my Iron Hill brewing  brethren are doing in our other locations.   I’ll be in North Wales drinking.. errrr.. campaigning for, my firkin.  What’s in it for you besides great beer?  You’ll get a chance to guess which beer will kick first (ballots in before 2 pm) and if your’s does you’ll enter a raffle for 1,000 mug club points.  We’ll also be doing one smaller raffle every hour between 1 and 5 pm. Click on the poster below for all of the details.  And don’t worry, we’ll still have our Irish Red Ale and Irish Dry Stout on tap so you won’t forget it’s St Patrick’s Day!

Cheers,

Chris

We spent the last night of our trip in London before flying out of Heathrow Sunday morning.  London was a great way to ease both into and out of Europe.  After a day in France, it was nice to be somewhere where we could talk to people without feeling  like the uni-ligual Americans that we are.

Part of the reason we picked the hotel we spent our last night in was its proximity to the Star Tavern.  Before I went to London for the first time 17 years ago I asked Nick Funnel where I should go in London.  He put the Star up there as one of his favorites.  Since then I’ve made it a point to visit the Star every time I’ve been back.  Its a great place, kind of hidden away, and once you’re in there you feel like you’re in someone’s living room.  Since the last time I was there they were awarded CAMRA‘s cask pub of the year.  So we booked a room a mere 5 blocks away from the Star.  Wrong Star unfortunately.  I’d forgotten that there are plenty of pubs in London that share names with completely unrelated establishments.

So on to plan B.  After a quick look at a map we learned that we were just over a mile from two other pubs that had come highly recommended.  The Rake was recommended by the White Horse cellarman that had given us our tour the week before, and The Wheatsheaf was recommended by Zeke  of DiBruno Brother’s.

The Rake was unlike anything I’d seen in London and at the same time a lot like things I see every day in Philadelphia.  (In a very good way).  In addition to a respectable selection of real ales they had a ton of microbrews available, from England, the U.S. and just about everywhere else in the world.  The walls were covered with tackards from Lagunitas, Dogfish Head and others and there was a Left Hand sticker slapped on the wall right next to the door.  One of the highlights of my trip was being inducted onto the Rake’s wall of fame.  The far wall is covered with the signatures of brewers, brewery owners and the occasional beer rep.  It wasn’t easy to tear ourselves away, but we did want to hit the other recommendation before heading home to pack for the airport.

The Wheatsheaf is now one of my top 20 bars in the world. 

(I couldn’t tell you the other 19, but I know the Wheatsheaf would be up there!)  It was a big brick-lined bar that was once the basement of the London Hop Exchange.  One of the first things I noticed was that the staff all had T-shirts with Campbell’s soup cans on them.  I learned later that the publican’s name was Danny Campbell, hence the logo.  The bar was definitely a beer place.  Not just an old-boy’s real ale spot, but a beer nerd’s dream.  In addition to the classic Young’s selections there were four or five beer engines dedicated to English microbreweries, a list that told you what was coming up next, and a cooler full of bottles from around the world.  The Lass settled on an Icelandic Belgian White.  (Guess she missed Belgium already).  I checked my masculinity in order to stick to half pints so I could try as many of the local micros as possible.

Somehow it took me until my second beer to notice the photos on the walls, something that quickly became my favorite aspect of the bar.  The first one I really looked at was a portrait of a meaty English guy with a crooked nose.  I automatically assumed the whole lot was pictures of famous footballers and rugby players.  Once I started looking around though, I noticed that the people pictured were of all walks of life.  I asked the bartender how one wound up on the wall of the Wheatsheaf and she told me they were all regulars.  I asked who took the photos and she said “another regular, he’s the guy at that table in the grey shirt”.  Starting then I spent the next half hour walking around the pub and looking at the photos.  I was amazed at the range of angles the photographer and subjects took on.  They were all portraits, but some were very close up of just the face and other’s got the subject head to toe.  Some subjects were posed and sincere and others were goofy or candid.  There were singles, couples and group shots, action shots, nudes and avant-garde artistic shots.  Not only were the regular patrons featured but so were all of the poeple the pub did business with; their fishmongers, cheesemongers, bakers, IT people and attorneys.  Until you can make it to London you can check out John Ross’ work here and read his story about how those photos came to be.  I think you’ll like his work.  The photos themselves are skillfully done portraits, but when you think about the fact that every single subject is a part of this pub’s community it really makes them treasures.  If you do get to London do yourself a favor, go to the Wheatsheaf, order one of the freshest Young’s you’ll ever drink and sip it slowly while you work your way around the room looking at the photos.  You could lose an afternoon.

Cheers,

Chris

We went back and forth quite a bit over whether it was worth it to take a train to Paris for just one night.  Not only would it be expensive but it could also be frusterating.  Friends of ours had described Paris as “overwhelming” and told us that there was way too much to do there to go for just one night.  We had very realistic goals though, one lunch and one dinner.  We were basically going to Paris to eat.  If we happened to catch  a distant glimpse of the Eiffel Tower or crossed the Champs Elysees on the way to the restaurant, then so be it.  But food was our subject. 

Despite our seemingly attainable goals and strict  itinerary we did waiver briefly.  At breakfast one morning I threw out the possibility of cutting out Paris for an extra night in London.  We were travelling with Craig LaBan of the Philadelphia Inquirer, and he was at the next table over at the time.  When he heard my suggestion he abruptly stopped typing, looked me straight in the face over the screen of his laptop and said “Don’t do that.”  That was enough for me!  When the man says go to Paris, you go to Paris.

We decided to do one very traditional and one of the new Liberté, Égalité, Frugalité  type spots. The traditional one was a fail.  I’m sure the food would have been great, but we never got to it.  After sitting serverless and beverageless for 20 minutes we decided to go looking for some food.  Shame too, I’d been looking forward to that meal for a week, but we’ve got our principles.  We wandered for a bit and finally came across a great spot with fairly traditional food but a much more modern atmosphere.  Our server was freindly and took the time to explain the whole menu to us in English.  Way more than we had a right to expect!

The next day’s lunch was the highlight though.  David McDuff of the Food and Wine Trail recommended a spot called Jeu De Quilles.  It was in a fairly residential neighborhood from what I could tell, and the patrons seemed to be 80% regular customers.  It was in a tiny room with an open kitchen at the end of it and just two employees, the chef and the waiter.  I loved the atmosphere and the food matched it.  Again, I was sad to see that they had completely forgotten that beer exsisted.  They do, however, focus on local and sustainable wine. What the hell, we were after all, in Paris.

That’s not to say that Paris is a complete beer desert.  We did, with the help of the world-wid- interweb find a great spot for craft beer, both French (yes it exists!) and international.  It was called Brewberry and it sat fairly close to the Mouffetard market that Craig had insisted we visit.  Imagine the Foodery’s Northern Liberties location but with way less food and way more atmosphere.  Basically a bottle shop, but with some casual seating and fresh but limited light fare.  Enough people take advantage of the seats to warrant all of the tables being reservation only past 7:00 or so.  The great thing about Brewberry is that the bottles are the same price whether you drink there or take them to go, which makes it cheaper than any bar you’d visit in Paris.  The establishment was owned  by a woman named Cecile, who was also our server for the next hour.  She was incredibly knowlegable and passionate about craft beer.  Looks like the women-in-beer think isn’t limited to Philadelphia and California.

We finished with a stroll through the market then headed home to the Hotel Crayon (not meant to be confused with Crillon… or is it?) a funky place with an honesty bar brightly colored rooms and crayon drawings on every wall.  We actually had the discipline to turn  in early in order to saves some energy for our last hurrah in London the next day.

Santé,

Chris

I’m taking a minute off of sharing my trip with you to ask you to make New Jersey a better place to drink craft beer and exercise your rights as an American all at the same time!  Ever noticed how the craft beer culture is just a little bit stonger across the Deleware? There are some silly laws in New Jersey regarding craft beer that we’d love to see changed.  For instance, did you know a brewery can only have two locations (production or brewpub)?  That means we can open up one more Iron Hill in the Garden State, then we’re done. Every time we open a location we create 70 new jobs that dont go away, we pay our taxes, donate to charity and support our communities.  Why wouldn’t you want more than two of us in your state?  Also, did you know that we’re not allowed to donate beer to charity events?????

Hopefully you’ll take the time to read the appeal below, put forth by the Garden State Craft Brewer’s Guild and make a couple of phone calls.  Then you can sit back with a beer and feel just a little more American!  It will take us one step further toward making our state as craft-beer-rich as our neighbors over the bridge.

Cheers,

Chris

Help NJ Craft Brewers and NJ Craft Beer Consumers

For the first time since craft brewing was legalized in New Jersey, there’s an opportunity for you to make a difference and help NJ brewers and consumers.
On Monday, March 5th, the New Jersey’s Senate Law and Public Safety Committee will meet to vote on S-641. The bill, developed by the Garden State Craft Brewers Guild, will give all craft brewers in the state more flexibility in how, when and where they sell and promote their beer.  Current regulations highly restrict what NJ brewers can do—especially when compared to the surrounding states of NY, PA and DE.  This will lead to a healthier environment for small brewers and more choices for craft beer consumers.

By Friday, March 2nd, please contact the 5 members of the Senate Law and Public Safety Committee (listed below) to let them know that you support the legislation as a craft beer consumer and ask them to VOTE YES on the bill.

For your information, Committee  Chairman Donald Norcross is already a co-prime sponsor of the legislation. You should thank Chairman Norcross for his sponsorship and for allowing the bill to be voted on in committee on the 5th.

When calling the other members of the committee, you should comment on how this bill will help small brewers continue to create jobs, improve tourism opportunities and cut needless red tape. From the consumer perspective, you should comment on how the bill will allow you to have better access to the locally made craft beers you love and want more of.

Remember, please call or e-mail these members by Friday, March 2nd to make sure your voice is heard and your support for S-641 is registered.

Thank you for your continued support of New Jersey’s craft brewers.

Garden State Craft Brewers Guild

Members of the Senate Law and Public Safety Committee

Norcross, Donald – Chair

Audubon Commons Shopping Center
130 Blackhorse Pike
1st Floor
Suite D-3
Audubon, NJ 08106
(856) 547-4800
sennorcross@njleg.org

Greenstein, Linda R. – Vice-Chair
7 Centre Dr.
Suite 2
Monroe, NJ 08831-1565
(609) 395-9911
sengreenstein@njleg.org

Bateman, Christopher
36 East Main St.
Somerville, NJ 08876
(908) 526-3600
senbateman@njleg.org

Holzapfel, James W
852 Highway 70
Brick, NJ 08724
(732) 840-9028
senholzapfel@njleg.org

Sacco, Nicholas J.
9060 Palisade Ave.
North Bergen, NJ 07047
(201) 295-0200
sensacco@njleg.org

Thanks again for your support of New Jersey’s small brewers.